Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The Shooting of Bill Strong - Can it now be told??

In "Letters from Elmer Keith" by Timothy J. Mullin, on July 10, 1944, Elmer Keith wrote a five page letter to Maj. Gen. George V. Strong, Bill's brother, giving further detatils about the killing. It appears that his wife/widow Irma was pregnant and had a premature delivery, resulting in the loss of the baby.

Tragic tale for certain. Elmer wrote that circumstances from that day still played on his mind and he "have never been able to reconcile myself on the accident angle, especially after what followed."

Did the State Treasurer of Montana, H.L. Hart and the Chief Clerk, Hans DeYoung, conspire to kill the State Accountant, Bill Strong?

Bill Strong's 1911 from the Keith auction.
https://www.morphyauctions.com/jamesdjulia/item/1018-373/

Here's the page from Elmers gun log on the 1911 as well. The handguns seemed to go for big money at the auction relative to the value assigned to them by elmer back in the 70's

I have Letters from Elmer Keith around here somewhere, my wife "organized" my study, will have to find that. I did run across Strong's 1911 while I was searching around, man I would have happily given $15k for it.

I ended up with 3 of Elmer's guns including one of his favorite rifles, but ya, the 1911 would be real cool to have.

Bristoe
Where did you find those recordings? We listened to them lunching on the deck. Completely awesome history. Took my 44 Special flattop and shot three and four hundred yards at sage clumps. Nice and dry so impacts were easy to see. With # 503 Keiths of course

Bristoe,

Those were great. Neat glimpse into some real history.

There has to be somewhere a movie with Elmer Keith in it. I saw about a 20 second clip used in a commercial for something years ago on IIRC HBO. It showed people rafting a river and then in camp. The was this rather short guy with a huge hat chopping wood. I watched closely the few times it ran and it was Elmer himself chopping that wood. I know that somewhere there has to be more of that film around. One thing was unlike much movies from that period the pictures were rather clear and sharp. I really would love to seem all of that footage.
Paul B.

Those short clips were from the British Columbia hunting expedition with Prentice Gray and Harry Snyder. There might have been a third hunter. Can’t remember. One of them made film of this adventure. These film cans ended up in the hands of a neat individual. There were lots of film cans but very few had usable film. This was old celluloid film and the outfit tried valiantly to save as much as they could. There was film of Elmer Keith cooking and washing dishes. Some other footage of the pack train coming down a switchback trail, Indians and Dall sheep.
I cannot remember how this film surfaced other than somebody called my friend and said done old films with guys in cowboy hats were on them. Come get them! Somewhere I have video tape of the film.

Keith ran the Salmon river with Gulke back in the 1930's, I too have seen some pictures of him on the Salmon river. Of course he was complete with big hat.

drover

Man those would be awesome to see.

I have a book that is a history of the Salmon River, including a description of all the little tributaries that feed into it and the various settlers that lived there. Among the photos, there is a picture of Captain Guleke's boat running a rapids. Of course, Elmer is obviously visible at the rear sweep with his trademark Stetson. I'll have to look it up, but I seem to recall the caption identifying Elmer as a local Salmon resident.

Mike454, a range report would be awesome!

2 of the guns are blackpowder revolver repros. The rifle is his Champlin Haskins Keith Grade 338/378 KT. I've shot it a couple times but will get serious and do a range report this summer.

Not that I will look forward too!

Man I wish I had paid closer attention when Elmer's guns were auctioned. I guess I just assumed they would all be 'way over my head. Once I saw the selling prices, well, most of them would have been. I was really surprised to see what his edc S&W .44 magnum went for, and Bill Strong's 1911. I would have happily paid those prices for those guns. The Revolver #5 went for a lot more; I always thought that gun was a bit over the top.

There were some deals to be had for sure. Most champlins for sale that I see are going for more than I paid for Elmer's. He used mine on His 50th and last bull elk, mule deer, antelope, and maybe bear. A number of his old custom SA colts went for 20% of the #5 colt. His custom Rugers went pretty reasonably as well.

As recall from reading, Elmer was on a short hunt in Africa with the owner of Guns and Ammo, and a few other folks. If I recall correctly, there was talk of movie cameras being run by a Mike D'Olivo, Photographer for G&A at the time. Maybe that old footage is still around?

As with doc_encor I never for a moment thought I would ever get to hear the voice of Mr. Keith. Thank you Bristoe.

I believe it was in 1986 the NRA Annual convention was in St. Louis and I attended with my oldest son and brother-in-law. Ted Keith was there and had the #5 SA on display. I had the privilege of meeting and visiting for a few moments with Ted and admired #5. There's was a LOT of the greats still alive at that convention. I met Bill Jordan, Bob Milek, saw Charles Askins but didn't meet him. At least I thought it was him. Mike Venturino was a young man then.....so was I. MEt a few others but I'd have to check my old program....if I can find it. Charlton Heston was the keynote speaker....and what a speech.

Above, frogman43 mentions a 1969 Tanzanian safari by a group from Petersen Publishing that included Elmer. Some audio recordings were made of campfire conversations. These recordings may still be available on CD: http://www.sixgun-forums.com/ElmerKeith/content/elmer-keith-tanzania-safari-1969-cd-set

Posted on that website there are a couple of teaser snippets of Elmer talking. The audio mp3 tracks may open from these links.

http://www.sixguns.com/sounds/sitetrack2.mp3
(Elmer describes shooting 3X at an antelope (?) from 300 yards away - 36 seconds)

http://www.sixguns.com/sounds/sitertack3.mp3
(Elmer tells about taking two buffalo with a left-and-right, and then says good night. 1 min, 8 secs)

--Bob